Remember when I decommissioned and sold my upright freezer back in December? It was an impulsive decision but I was curious as to whether I would notice a difference in our electric bill.
I can't say I noticed a huge difference in December and January in terms of the dollar amount from previous months but it's clear our "usage" of kWh is definitely less. In February, our bill was about $74 compared to about $100 in 3 previous months. We just got our bill for March yesterday (due April 10) and it's $69.
Next, I went back and compared recent bills (after I got rid of the freezer) to the same months in 2011 (Jan-April). In January 2011, our bill was $130.88 compared to January 2012 ($101). In Feb. 2011, the bill was $138.82 compared to $101 again in Feb 2012. (I thought it was weird that the bills were identical in those 2 months-but that's irrelevant). In March, 2011, our bill was $105.42 compared to $74. Finally, we paid $92.84 in April 2011 compared to $69 for this year.
Based on electric bills from the years before I got the freezer (consistently under $100), I was expecting to save about $25 per month and I'm thinking that's about right.
We did switch suppliers sometime in the summer and that might account for a small difference in the bills but would not account for the savings in usage. I calculate roughly a 20% difference in usage since we haven't had the freezer. One other disclosure...I imposed a screen fast during lent. The kids do watch some movies as a family but everyone's viewing, including mine and Mark's is significantly lower. I'm sure that accounts for the approximate $5 savings between Feb and March. That's actually surprising. Wonder how much it would be if the desktop was turned off most of the day and night. It's usually on sleep but still plugged in.
A note about living without a freezer aside from the energy savings. I actually think it's liberating. There are a very few things that I like to freezer (extra spaghetti sauce and meatballs, cookie dough balls, muffin batter) but I honestly can live without doing all of those things. It's actually less imposing making one batch of sauce rather than enough for 6 meals. I prefer working with 1-2 lbs of ground meat rather than 6. I can live without frozen cookie dough and muffin batter.
When I had the luxury of the freezer, I tended to waste more and even spend more weekly on food. I'd prepare more food than we needed, throw it in the freezer and about half the time, not get around to using it in a timely manner.
I can't say I noticed a huge difference in December and January in terms of the dollar amount from previous months but it's clear our "usage" of kWh is definitely less. In February, our bill was about $74 compared to about $100 in 3 previous months. We just got our bill for March yesterday (due April 10) and it's $69.
Next, I went back and compared recent bills (after I got rid of the freezer) to the same months in 2011 (Jan-April). In January 2011, our bill was $130.88 compared to January 2012 ($101). In Feb. 2011, the bill was $138.82 compared to $101 again in Feb 2012. (I thought it was weird that the bills were identical in those 2 months-but that's irrelevant). In March, 2011, our bill was $105.42 compared to $74. Finally, we paid $92.84 in April 2011 compared to $69 for this year.
Based on electric bills from the years before I got the freezer (consistently under $100), I was expecting to save about $25 per month and I'm thinking that's about right.
We did switch suppliers sometime in the summer and that might account for a small difference in the bills but would not account for the savings in usage. I calculate roughly a 20% difference in usage since we haven't had the freezer. One other disclosure...I imposed a screen fast during lent. The kids do watch some movies as a family but everyone's viewing, including mine and Mark's is significantly lower. I'm sure that accounts for the approximate $5 savings between Feb and March. That's actually surprising. Wonder how much it would be if the desktop was turned off most of the day and night. It's usually on sleep but still plugged in.
A note about living without a freezer aside from the energy savings. I actually think it's liberating. There are a very few things that I like to freezer (extra spaghetti sauce and meatballs, cookie dough balls, muffin batter) but I honestly can live without doing all of those things. It's actually less imposing making one batch of sauce rather than enough for 6 meals. I prefer working with 1-2 lbs of ground meat rather than 6. I can live without frozen cookie dough and muffin batter.
When I had the luxury of the freezer, I tended to waste more and even spend more weekly on food. I'd prepare more food than we needed, throw it in the freezer and about half the time, not get around to using it in a timely manner.
